The conference "We Can and Have to Find the Truth" was organised by the alliance of families of detained and missing Croatian war veterans, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Croatian Government, the Science Ministry, and the International Commission for Missing Persons. It was held under the auspices of Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Veterans Minister Jadranka Kosor.
The event, which closed on Sunday, pooled about 100 representatives from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia-Montenegro, observers from Macedonia and Kosovo, international representatives, and representatives of governmental and nongovernmental organisations.
The conclusions underline the need to improve relations between associations representing detained and missing veterans and the authorities, to work more effectively and faster on the tracing of the missing, the exhumation and identification of victims, and to prosecute all war crimes.
The conclusions condemn the relocation of mass graves as a way of covering up crimes, and underline the need to keep relevant international bodies objectively updated.
The participants in the conference agreed that in Bosnia's case it was necessary to create a single data base and facilitate the flow and availability of information on the tracing and identification of the missing.
The ICRC will be asked to liberalise regulations on the submission of requests for tracing the missing.
The conference supported the proposal of the Croatian Red Cross to draw up an additional protocol to the Geneva conventions which would provide for the constant presence of neutral observers on former detention locations.
According to figures of the government commission for detained and missing persons, Croatia is still looking for 1,184 persons. To date 140 mass and about 1,200 single graves have been discovered in Croatia, containing the remains of 3,996 victims, most of whom have been identified. It is estimated that about 30,000 people went missing on the territory of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s war.